Tonto National Monument

TONTO NATIONAL MONUMENT - How in the world could people survive in a place like this?

What were their lives like?

Why did they leave?

These are the things you ponder as you make your way up the trail to the cliff dwellings at Tonto National Monument, just south of Theodore Roosevelt Lake.

Those questions have captivated park ranger Eddie Colyott for years.

"How humans have survived just on their own primitive technologies, living off of this land, utilizing the plants and the animals, I find that very compelling, in that I'm not sure we could do that today," he said. "I could not survive the way they did. That gives me tremendous respect for these people."

Flourishing culture

The ruins are tucked into a deep, east-facing overhang. Broken walls formed by irregular stone blocks are held together with an ancient mortar made of clay, caliche and soil.

Wooden beams still stick out from the walls here and there. Black marks on the walls and roof show where fires burned so many centuries ago.

Some rooms you may enter, others you may not.

What visitors see at the Lower Cliff Dwelling are single-family residences, according to Colyott.

"You will note they are quite small, but that was housing for Mom, Dad, couple of kids and everything they owned," he said.

The cliff dwellings were built by the Salados between 1250 and the early 1300s, and occupied until around 1450.

At any given time there probably were 40 to 50 people living there, although the dwellings could have held as many as 70, Colyott said.

Some of the most intriguing features of the ruins are the handprints still discernable in the ancient mortar.

"Because of the type of architecture that they employed up there, putting mud plaster on those rocks, they left numerous handprints and finger prints behind," Colyott said.

The Salados flourished for several centuries. They built dams and irrigation canals, wove textiles, made a distinctive polychrome pottery and traded with distant civilizations.

Sometime around 1400 or 1450, they left.

Possibly that was due to climatic changes, which could have included droughts and floods. A growing population may have put some stress on the environment.

"It may have been just a matter of carrying capacity," Colyott said. "Once the land could no longer support the population that we think dwelled here, they just slowly migrated away to greener pastures."

It seems, he said, to have been a slow process, spread over decades.

Resources from the desert

Visitors often marvel that the Salados could have endured, even thrived, in what seems to be such a harsh environment, Colyott said.

"Everything a human actually needs is provided in the Sonoran Desert," Colyott said. "It is astounding - 270 plants offer medicines, cosmetics, foods, tools, weapons, building materials. And it does take people by surprise when they realize just how rich and lush this environment actually is."

Visitors can learn more about how people lived here by taking one of the guided tours to the Upper Cliff Dwelling and by exploring the visitor-center museum.

Connection to the past

Maureen Treston, a psychotherapist at the Behavioral Health Center on the Hopi Reservation, was practicing yoga at the cliff dwelling early on a recent Sunday morning. Although she had seen signs to the monument many times on her travels, that was her first visit.

"I think they're absolutely beautiful," she said of the cliff dwellings. "I was imagining their lives up here as I walked up the path."

"It's important to connect with our past," she said. "It's so lovely to have this. It's been a treat. I'm glad I found it."

Also on their first visit to the site were Brian and Sharon Hart, of Alberta, Canada.

"It's very interesting to think about how they could have survived here with the technology they had," Sharon said. "And still they managed to build this."

"We are totally removed from this type of environment today," Brian said. "But here we can learn how people lived in this climate without modern appliances."

"I think it's fabulous that the U.S. has preserved places like this," Sharon said. "It's important to understand our history and where we came from."

Lush desert

Aside from the ruins, the thing that strikes many visitors is the lushness of the desert, Colyott said.

The hillsides are thick with saguaro, jojoba, cholla, prickly pear, ocotillo and paloverde.

"The density of the plants is what startles most people. You wouldn't believe you were in a desert environment when you come through Tonto Basin, especially this time of the year. It's just so green and lush."

Colyott expects a good showing of wildflowers at the monument this year.

"There are a lot of variables involved with that," he said. "Humidity, temperature, previous rain, but I'm suspecting by early March we'll should start seeing some (wildflowers), probably by mid-March we will have very impressive displays."

More things to see and do

In addition to the main ruin, the Lower Cliff Dwelling, there is another large ruin at Tonto National Monument - the Upper Cliff Dwelling.

The walk to the Lower Ruin is self-guided; visitors may come and go as they please. But only four tours a week, each limited to 15 people, go to the Upper Cliff Dwelling - one tour each Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. And the trail is closed from May through October.

Reservations are required for those tours, which begin at 10 a.m. It's a good idea to call well ahead, especially during spring wildflower season.

Upper Dwelling

The trek to the Upper Dwelling begins at the visitor center. It quickly passes into a rocky creek bed and through a beautifully shaded area. There are a couple of places where hikers have to scramble up a step or two on the slickrock, but it's nothing too strenuous. Along the way, your guide will tell you about the area's geology, archaeology and biology. Wildlife includes deer, bobcats, javelina, Gila monsters and 16 species of snakes. But, the ranger reassures visitors, only six species are poisonous.

Shortly after the trail leaves the creek bed, you get a good look at your destination, nestled under a quartzite overhang at the base of a cliff about 600 feet above the visitor center. Now the trail begins to climb in earnest.

Considering its age, the structure is surprisingly well-preserved. You can walk through some rooms; many others are sealed off. A small cistern, which could hold up to 100 gallons of water, remains beneath a now-dry spring at the base of the shallow cave.

The trip to the Upper Dwelling takes three to four hours.

Moonlight tours

During the winter, rangers lead one moonlight tour a month to the ruins. No more are scheduled until late in 2009. Reservations are also required for those tours.

Tonto National Monument

GETTING THERE About 115 miles from central Phoenix. Go east on U.S. 60 to Globe. Turn north on Arizona 188 and drive about 30 miles to the signed entrance to the monument. Or take Loop 202 to Arizona 87 (the Beeline Highway). Go north about 80 miles, turn southeast onto Arizona 188 and drive about 30 miles south to Roosevelt Dam, then go about 4 more miles to the monument's entrance.

Scenic alternative: Take Arizona 88, the Apache Trail, northeast out of Apache Junction, about 40 miles to Arizona 188, then turn east and go about 4 miles to the monument. About half of this route is graded but unpaved, and the road is often narrow, steep and sharply curved.

WHEN 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Closed Christmas Day. The trail to the Lower Cliff Dwelling closes to uphill traffic at 4 p.m. The best time to visit is from November through April.

About this series

All year, The Arizona Republic will take you to national parks and monuments in Arizona, pointing out the best places to hike, camp, boat and learn about the land and those who came before. Read the stories at travel.azcentral.com and in the Sunday Travel section.March 29: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.